Small Steps to Greatness
by SinceILeftYou
Summary: Vignettes from each of the crew members perspectives, aged 6. See what the galaxies dirty dozens' lives were like before they became the characters we know them to be today. Rated T just to be safe.
1. Solitude

**A/N: Miranda POV; I've warmed to her considerably since I started to watch Chuck (plus I have a bit of a Shaw/Casey/Sarah thing). Yet another oneshot which has grown I'm afriad. Whist writing this I came up with a Jack version since the themes between the two are so similar, and then another and then another. Mind you, Mordin is VERY hard to visualise aged six, so far all I have is him finding a stash of sugary goodess and being bouncing off of the walls hyper. Never a good thing. ^^ **

**Still, these are fun to write and don't take too long, providing the perfect mental breathing space between other... stuff. Bioware owns everything except imminent failure.

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Solitude**  
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Miranda's hand grasped around the ribbon of the bright pink balloon, the other squeezed the damp, lichen covered bench which she was sitting on. An ice creams truck's jingle played in the background.

"Miranda sweetie? Would you like an ice cream?"

Miranda shook her head.

She hungrily eyed all of the children playing around her; their laughter was ringing around the air, music to her ears. It was a beautiful day in the park, the sun shone high overhead and the lush vermillion grass whispered in the breeze; there was absolutely no reason for her to be feeling so sad. Only metres away a boy and two girls were taking it in turns to use the slide, despite herself, she was aching with a primal desire to join in with them.

"Miranda, daddy has to leave but he will be back in five minutes, do not move from this bench. I love you."

"I love you too daddy."

She continued to watch the boy and the two girls, now entrapped in a childish argument as to whose turn it was. The boy was swaggering out his chest, proclaiming it was his, whereas the girl, a blonde, was red in the face and shouting at him. The other girl sat in the middle of the two and said nothing. Miranda knew that the boy was wrong, she had since counted them use the slide a total of thirty two times, starting with the boy and finishing with the blonde girl, and three goes into thirty two ten times with a remainder of two, which meant that there was still another turn before the cycle came back round to him. Maths like that was child play to her.

_"You're different to all of the other children Miranda, you're special."_

Part of her wanted to go walk right up to them and correct them, another had kept her stapled to her seat in fear. The blonde girl stomped off and huddled in the corner of the fence surrounding the play park, looking up only occasionally to glare at them. Unconcerned, the boy walked to the top of the slide and whizzed down, the other girl looked over towards her friend frowning. Miranda wondered if her intervention would have made any difference to the situation.

_"The others, they wouldn't understand you. You must not talk to them."_

Miranda looked away from all of the children playing, focusing instead on the pattern of the moss and lichen on the bench below her legs.

"Excuse me?"

Miranda looked up and was faced with the other girl, the boy stood in the background looking sullen.

"We saw you sitting alone," the girl gave a sniff and looked back towards the blonde "would you like to play with us?"

Miranda recoiled in fear, she stared down wide eyed at the girl, unable to reply.

"Hello? Earth to bench girl?"

Miranda could feel herself physically tremble with nerves; she formed words in her mouth which would not come out.

"Huh. What a weirdo." The girl sneered and turned away.

"Miranda? Who was that?"

Her father reappeared at her side.

"...It was nobody daddy, really."

Her father hesitated.

"Okay princess, whatever you say. Come on, we're leaving."

She could feel his hand enveloping her own and a gentle tug signalling for her to get off the bench. She stood and, still holding her balloon, wiped the last traces of moss off of the back of her jeans. With one last fleeting glance at the scene she was leaving behind her, she let her father guide her away, home.


	2. The Tall Man

**A/N: New chapter! I wrote this while I should have been doing more productive stuff... ah well. **

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The Tall Man in a White Lab Coat and Glasses

Subject Zero slammed her fist across the filthy glass, no matter how long she called out to it, hours spent screaming out soundless distress signals, the world outside would not change. Everyday was the same out there; children would run around on together on the dull green grass, sheltered lovingly by a lazily sprawling tree. They would laugh, they would cry, they would _live_, all whist she wasted in this dull grey room, alone.

She took three steps back and closed her eyes, concentrating her energy just as she had been taught.

"Z_ero," she felt the cattle prod stab into her back "if we don't see any improvement we're going to have to punish you."_

A blue glow began to emit from her body, she concentrated as hard as she could, if she could only keep it up, just for once...

_A thousand pins of pain permeated into her body, a scream built up in her throat but it only seemed to entice them further into hurting her. A force swept her off of her feet and she collapsed onto the ground, shaking uncontrollably. She felt the cattle prod at her neck again._

"_21st November. Subject Zero's progress is still... disappointing."_

_All she could do was cling desperately to the floor as the electricity burned throughout her body once again. _

Instinctively, she let out a whimper and the blue light receded back into her. She felt her knees tremble beneath her as she fell to the ground, hot tears cascading freely down her cheeks.

"_Please stop!" her voice was horse from screaming, her nails scratching frantically at the ground. _

"_You know full well what you have to do if you want me to stop." _

"_I... I can't."_

"_So be it. Smith, get the whip."_

"_No! Please don't-"_

_She felt his foot against her face, instantly silencing her._

"_I think our subject needs a little more incentive."_

She clawed the burns and scars which marred her entire body, wishing that there was a way she could cover them up; every time she caught her reflection in the window to the outside world she was sickened by the reminder of how powerless she was against them. They did this to her, it was their fault, no matter how many times they tried to tell her otherwise.

"_You'll only ever be as good as we're making you, remember that. And if you aren't good enough, well..."_

_Her eyes widened in fear at what the tall man in the white lab coat and glasses; as he spoke, he lazily twirled a strange stick which gave off electricity as he gently squeezed a red button on the handle. _

"_Well lets just say that we have our methods."_

For the first time in her life, tears dissolved into rage. Why should she be denied the world outside, it was all she'd ever wanted in her life.

A blue glow began to emit from her fingertips.

Did they know what suffering was? If they knew what the world inside here was like, would someone out there care?

Did such a silly notion even exist outside of this room?

As her anger reached a climax, so did the blue energy coursing through her veins. Shrouded in blue, she caught her reflection on the window. She was shocked at how empowered she looked, standing tall and glaring defiantly back at herself.

Her eyes lingered over a scar on her left hip.

_He now had the device he had been twirling so casually when they first met held over her waist._

"_You have three seconds..."_

_She panicked; what exactly did he want her to do?_

"_One... two..."_

_He lingered slightly longer on the last word._

"_Three."_

_She closed her eyes and felt pain nothing like she had ever experienced before. _

Her mind went blank; all of her emotions reached a crescendo as energy came spilling out of her, aimed directly at one thing, her reflection.

Someone behind her began to applaud.

"Excellent Subject Zero, I knew it was only a matter of time."

The tall man in the white lab coat and glasses signalled to the guards.

"Take her away for more testing."


	3. The Justicar

**A/N: This has been sitting in my Doc Manager for ages but I haven't been able to post because I'm struggling a bit with this writing thing. Writers angst coming back for round 34 it seems. Ugh. **

**Anyways, just a quick note to say that don't expect a huge amount of updating from me anytime soon. Annoying? Yes, very, I know. But my life is swamped right now and I don't have a huge amount of time to write - hey, if any of you want to sit in one of my 7-hour tuesdays for me whilst I come up with a new "masterpiece" be my guest! Have I adressed all 3 people who care about this kind of thing? Yes? Okie dokie, enjoy the read! **

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The Justicar

The smell of baking flooded through the kitchen, sinking into the bright yellow walls and radiating the room with an unparalleled sense of homeliness. Life here was very comfortable; every day the sun set high up in the sky, warming the land it watched over and helping the exotic flowers grow in the meadows surrounding the lone, countryside house. This was a place where time moved very slowly, years passed by where nothing seemed to change; especially the bond between the mother and child who were now sitting in the kitchen together. As the small child chattered, the mother lovingly stroked her head.

"Ma! Today I found a bright pink flower."

The mother had a very regal face and, had it not been alight with the ease of a long and comfortable life and affection for those surrounding her, it would have possessed a severe, icy beauty; a facial expression remaining ever-unchanged, eyes appearing as blank as slates to those who looked into them.

Those eyes now were twinkling at the small child.

"Did you?"

"Yepp. But one of the petals fell off on the way home, so I had to destroy it."

The girl held her hand over an empty packet and, almost instantaneously, it was surrounded by a blue aura. She flicked her wrist upwards and the object floated upwards, seemingly crushed by an invisible force surrounding it. Her eyes, already so like her mother's, were glowing with pleasure.

"Like that Ma!"

Carelessly she flicked her wrist again, the crumpled up paper flew sideways and landed cleanly in the trash.

Unperturbed, the mother laughed at her child's antics, a high and tinkling laugh, one which did not match her hard set facial features. She stood up and leant over the oven, rearranging the tray so that what was inside would not burn. As she did this, various cooking implements which had been left out to dry began to emit the same blue glow and flew into the various cupboards which lined the room.

The girl focused intently on a bowl, and that too shone with blue, raising a foot into the air; however, even for her young age not possessing the greatest attention span, she was soon distracted by watching her mother float gracefully around the kitchen, busying herself in domestic matters. The bowl gradually changed back to it's dull beige colour and fell, shattering as it hit the ground. No sooner had the pieces settled were they lifted into the air and sent zooming towards the bin.

"You must be careful when you do that!"

"Sorry Ma."

The girl continued to watch her mother, in her mind there was no person more wonderful to her, nobody else who could wipe away her tears and make her feel more protected. She was the only thing in life which would always be there for her, irrespective of what life threw in their way as the years passed along with the waxing and waning of the sun.

"Ma? Will life be like this forever?"

"Hmmm? And why do you ask such a strange question?"

"I want life to be like this forever."

The mother gave a laugh which lit up the sun coloured room.

"Then yes Mirala. Yes it will."


End file.
